Billy Connolly-Erect for 30 Years (1998)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	Web Links
Rating
Year Of Production	1998
Running Time	103:04
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Billy Connolly Whoopi Goldberg Pamela Stephenson Eddie Izzard Judi Dench Robin Williams
Case	?
RPI	$29.95	Music	None Given

    For over 30 years Billy Connolly has been making us laugh with a mixture of real life anecdotes, tall tales and his profound sense of the absurd. His language may have changed from time to time but he still has that great sense of showmanship that has made him so successful throughout his career. Starting in the early 70s as a bit of a folk singer who did comedy, he progressed through his career from being a comic who did a bit of singing to a straight comic. This is something that is detailed in this retrospective of his life as a professional. Much of the material used on this disc has at one time or another been presented previously but it still had the ability to keep you laughing, which says volumes about the man's comedy.

    This disc contains interviews with various people including Michael Parkinson who probably did more to put Billy on the map than anyone else, his wife of twenty-odd years, Pamela Stephenson, Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, Whoopi Goldberg, Sean Connery, Eddie Izzard and other luminaries of the stage and screen, all of whom voice their opinion of the man and his comedy. Snippets of his humour that directly relate to what is being discussed are used to reinforce his ability to laugh at the inane and life in general. It is an excellent diversion for an hour and forty minutes.

    The one thing that saves this from being just a rehash is an additional half hour or so of additional footage recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon and previously unreleased. Although not his sharpest material, it does show a side of him he rarely lets out - the hard man. All-in-all, this is a very funny disc, even though you probably know most of the jokes or have seen most of the stuff presented in one form or another. It is a credit to his comic genius that he can keep coming back time and time again to entertain and have us rolling around the floor in tears. This is a beautifully presented disc to highlight the first 30 years of his talent.

Video

    Made for TV, this has a rare look of real quality about it.

    Originally presented in 1.33:1 and not 16x9 enhanced, this is what you get on this disc.

    The general level of sharpness is excellent throughout. No edge enhancement was noted and there are only a few places, particularly in the older material, where there is any degradation in the quality. Shadow detail depends entirely on what you are watching. The interviews with Billy, Pamela Stephenson, Michael Parkinson and so on are excellent with plenty of fine detail to see. The stage shows vary considerably since you are covering over 30 years, but on the whole you won't find too much to complain about. Grain is non-existent in many parts with only the older stage shows offering anything of substance and for the most part this is fairly innocuous. Low level noise was not an issue.

    For the most part the colour is excellent with very natural skin tones and a fine palette in use. The interviews are the best for this with the stage show footage often limited in colour range. Apart from some blooming in the whites when Parkinson is being interviewed, there was no problems. Colour bleed and chroma noise were not visible.

    There are only a couple of minor issues in regards to film-to-video artefacts. Slight overmodulation can be seen on Billy's black and white striped suit at 33:55. There is some slight ringing on Parkinson's spotted shirt at 12:46 and whenever he appears thereafter. If you look closely you can see moiré artefacts on the wicker chair at 36:52 and there is some slight pixelization visible at times (34:33 along the edge of Billy's suit for instance) but for the most part it remains only visible if you look for it. Film artefacts are totally absent, or at least nothing crossed my sight that I could detect for a very clean, crisp and clear picture overall with minimal problems.

    There were no subtitles on this disc.

    This was a single layered disc.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    This disc contains only one soundtrack, an English Dolby Digital 2.0 track at 224 kilobits per second. There are some quite annoying problems with the soundtrack that were noted. For the most part, the dialogue all emanates from the centre channel with some separation through the front speakers. There isn't much of a soundstage, but given the nature of the material this wasn't an issue until the problems occur.

    At around 22:35, the sound is redirected totally to the left speaker with almost silence from the right. At 64:50 the sound diminishes in volume by approximately 6-8dB for around 20 seconds. The same occurs at 76:00 but lasts a good 2 minutes this time. At 80:05 the centre channel disappears and the dialogue is split between the left and right speakers but returns to the centre channel at around 81:25, and finally at around 82:50 all sound disappears from the left and right channels and becomes firmly placed in the centre channel (with a loss again of about 6-8dB).

    Dialogue and syncing are fine with no problems detected.

    There is some music at the beginning and end of the show, plus Billy singing D.I.V.O.R.C.E and In the Brownies. Otherwise, music is confined to supplementing his on-stage comedy.

    There was no surround channel nor subwoofer activity detected on this disc.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Web Links

    There doesn't appear to be a Region 1 release of this disc, but it is available in Region 2. Given the quality of the offering and the fact that the Region 2 appears to be identical, it is a no-brainer to buy the local version over any import.

    Billy Connolly will hopefully go on entertaining and amusing audiences for another 20 years. This is a decent tribute to a man who has brought laughter and joy to many people and it is a good starting point for any collection. Those who already own many of the previous releases of his shows might find this a little repetitious, but it is worth a viewing for the previously unreleased material.

    The video is excellent. There are some minor issues but nothing untoward and definitely quality throughout.

    The audio is a little disappointing with a number of unusual dropouts and changes in volume.

    The extras are confined to a web address.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall